ROSAT HRI Images of Abell 85 and Abell 496: Evidence for Inhomogeneities in Cooling Flows
Abstract
We present ROSAT high-resolution images of two clusters of galaxies with cooling flows, Abell 496 and Abell 85. In these clusters, X-ray emission on small scales above the general cluster emission is significant at the 3 σ level. There is no evidence for optical counterparts. If real, the enhancements may be associated with clumps of gas at a lower temperature and higher density than the ambient medium, or hotter, denser gas perhaps compressed by magnetic fields. These observations can be used to test models of how thermal instabilities form and evolve in cooling flows.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 1995
- DOI:
- 10.1086/187718
- Bibcode:
- 1995ApJ...438L..71P
- Keywords:
-
- Cosmology;
- Galactic Clusters;
- Galactic Evolution;
- Interstellar Matter;
- Statistical Analysis;
- X Ray Astronomy;
- Continuum Mechanics;
- Inhomogeneity;
- Mathematical Models;
- Rosat Mission;
- Thermodynamic Properties;
- Two Dimensional Models;
- X Ray Imagery;
- Astrophysics;
- GALAXIES: COOLING FLOWS;
- GALAXIES: CLUSTERS: GENERAL;
- GALAXIES: INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM;
- X-RAYS: GALAXIES